𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 | 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐧

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚒𝚟𝚎

I had a feeling there would be no such thing as having a private conversation with somebody at Welton. As I was leaving the cave with Meeks, I told him to continue on. I had to have a talk with Charlie. Meeks raised his eyebrows at me. "You sure do move fast."

"No, I don't like him like that!" I laughed, shaking my head. In truth, at that time, I didn't have a crush on Dalton. In all honesty, I wasn't even looking to date. I valued friendship and good grades... not sneaking out at night to go get a milkshake! Though, that did sound fun.

"Mhm sure." Meeks nodded, pretending like he believed me. When he walked off with the rest of the group (who were planning to eavesdrop), I heard him laugh to himself.

"L/n." Charlie had quite the habit of sneaking up on me. I turned around to see him smiling, still having that glint of mischief in his expression.

"Dalton." I replied, smiling back just the same. After a small bit of silence, I decided to break it by holding out my hand in front of him. "Truce?"

I could see Charlie's face light up, though he was trying to hide it behind a false sense of cool. "Hmm..." He looked at my hand. "I don't know..."

"I'm sorry for acting like a prude." I finally said. "I wanna be friends, so shake my damn hand, Dalton."

He couldn't hide the delight on his face now. "Prude? I never said you were a prude!" He laughed a bit and forcefully put his hand in mine, giving it a hearty shake. "I get it," he let go of my hand. "Some people just can't handle it."

I rolled my eyes at his playful behavior. "Shut up. Don't make me regret trucing you."

"You're no prude, okay?" He smiled at me, then leaned in close to whisper. "You won't regret it, doll." I stood there, my face red as a tomato, and he just smiled at me. "What? Was it something I said?"

"Charlie, I thought you said you were done doing that." I was uncomfortable with him flirting with me. First of all, I never was into romance or love. Second of all, he did this to every girl, so it didn't make me feel like anything special. I had a feeling I was going to fall for him, but he would never fall for me. It would all be because of his flirtatious personality.

"Yes, you're right. Starting now, I won't act 'weird'." His body language read calm, but his eyes still had that need to tease me. I could tell he was holding back. I didn't know whether to be worried or impressed.

I replied by thanking him. Turning away from the cave, we walked back to the others. The boys were just now pretending to be laughing about something that happened in one of their classes. I had to be honest, I was envious to live their lives. I wish I could've attended a school with Meeks and Dalton, but no. My family wasn't rich enough, and I wasn't a boy.

Meeks offered me a cigarette. I accepted, taking only one puff of it before Charlie took it away from me. "Thank you, l/n!"

Before I could even respond, Meeks began speaking. "Well, technically, it was from me." Whatever part of me that was annoyed with Dalton quickly went away when Meeks said that. I couldn't help but laugh, and it seemed like Dalton couldn't help it either.

"Thank you, Meeks." Charlie responded, still laughing a bit. The cigarette was put back into my hands after Charlie had it for a while.

"I don't want this." I stated to him, and Charlie shrugged.

"Give it back to Meeks, then. I mean, technically, it was from him." Charlie explained through Meeks' own words.

"Fuck off, guys." The red head's face almost matched his hair with how embarrassed he was getting. "Let's go back, come on."

The boys started to head back to their rooms, but I had to go back home. I hated this part of the night. I noticed Meeks hung back a bit. "Hey, you can stay with us tonight?" He suggested. "It's friday."

"Do you know how bad that sounds?" I asked him with a laugh. "My mom would never let me stay in a room full of boys for a night. Never. Especially not alone."

"We have Cameron. Welton's goodie two shoes." Charlie had heard us talking and decided to insert himself. "He wouldn't let anything bad happen to you."

"Uhh..." I didn't know how to take that.

"I mean, none of us would even do anything." Charlie tried to fix what he meant, but it still all sounded suspicious.

"Charlie. Shut up." Meeks said what everyone was thinking.

"It's Nuwanda." Charlie quickly corrected him, causing Meeks to let out a long sigh.

"My parents are leaving for the weekend next week. Maybe then?" I suggested, gaining smiles from the two.

"Naughty, naughty girl." Charlie shook his head while smiling.

"Ew, never mind." I scrunched up my face at Charlie's behavior. "Um, I'll only do it if I can bring-"

"Girls?" Dalton quickly interrupted, a stupid smile on his face.

"Wow, you really know how to make me feel safe." I replied sarcastically.